Building the Flywheel: Creating Sustainable Revenue & Profit Growth

I wanted to do something different with my newsletter this week. I’ve decided to do a 5-part series on strategy to execution, and specifically on using customer insights to define a strategy. As we’re getting in to the time of year when many companies are doing performance reviews and setting yearly priorities, I’m reminded of how important defining the strategy is to those conversations.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” I think this phrase gets overused these days, and while I don’t disagree that culture is critical for business, I also feel like this statement is sometimes an excuse for not having a well defined strategy. A company’s mission statement defines it’s core values and reason for being. The culture of the company - how it treats its employees and customers, why people come to work and why they stay - creates a competitive edge in long-term sustained success.

However, a clear and actionable strategy helps shape and reinforce the company culture and leads to better execution and prioritization. I’m a strong believer in the concept of “Commander’s Intent” - the philosophy of focusing on the end state and creating a high-level definition of what a successful mission outcome is, rather than an overly prescriptive step-by-step guide of how to achieve the outcome. This empowers all levels of the organization to react and adapt as the situation on the front lines changes, while maintaining a focus on the successful mission outcome.

It all sounds great, but creating simple, understandable and actionable strategies in a complex business and market environment can be extremely challenging. A good strategy should include:

1. What is the game we are playing - what markets, customers, competitors

2. What are the rules of the game - how do we execute, what are our resources to play, how do we prioritize

3. What does a winner look like - what is our competitive advantage

4. How do we continue learning - what signals are we looking for to adapt and pivot as our customers and the market reveal new information

While good strategies encompass all these elements in simple, relatable ways the best strategies base this on deep customer and market insights in a way that is not easy for competitors to replicate. In this next 4 elements of this series, I will explore:

• How to use customer insights to develop a strong strategy

• How a strategy should inform product roadmaps and prioritizations

• The importance of KPIs and metrics in executing on a strategy

• Tying it all together into goals and objectives for execution

Follow along and comment below if you want to learn more about this topic I’m so passionate about.

Strategies for Accelerating Revenue Growth and Profitability 💡 - Watch Video

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